Troy Anthony Davis now sits where he was little more than a year ago, hours away from being put to death by lethal injection.
Cross-posted at Street Prophets
During the years I was a newspaper reporter in Texas, there were a lot of stories I was aching to cover, and one series from which I always prayed to be spared. I never wanted to be assigned to the pool of reporters chosen to cover an execution. And I am grateful that I never was.
Even when a piece of my brain seizes on a piece of information that makes this barbaric practice emotionally palatable -- such as, for example, the knowledge that every time Ted Bundy escaped, he killed more people -- the whole idea of state-sanctioned killing makes me queasy. And never more powerfully than where, as appears to be the case with Troy Davis, expediency and finality appear to have become more important values than justice.
In this country of laws, that should never be case. But that appears to be the case in Georgia tonight.
Restrictions on Federal appeals have prevented Troy Anthony Davis from having a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him, despite the fact that most of the witnesses have since recanted, many alleging they were pressured or coerced by police. Troy Davis remains on Georgia death row, and may be scheduled for execution in the near future.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia; a murder he maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles – the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.
Source ~ Amnesty International
For a while, some 15 months ago, a brief candle of justice appeared to have been lit. I wrote about it here. Tonight, it has been all but put out. Today, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his lawyer's pleas to reconsider its decision to deny clemency to Troy Davis. And, also today, the Georgia Supreme Court (with one lone dissent), denied his request for a stay of execution.
Davis’ last hope to avoid his 7 p.m. Tuesday execution now appears to rest with the U.S. Supreme Court, where his lawyers have also asked for a stay of execution.
Davis, 39, sits on death row for the Aug. 19, 1989, murder of Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. But since Davis’ 1991 trial, seven key prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony.
His claims of innocence has drawn international attention, with Pope Benedict XVI and former President Jimmy Carter asking for Davis’ death sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole.
(snip)
Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, also asked the parole board to reconsider its Sept. 12 decision denying Davis clemency.
"Justice and due process deserve a real chance in Georgia," Warnock said.
Because of the doubts as to Davis’ guilt, it would not be an error to re-sentence him to life in prison, the pastor said. "If you execute an innocent man, you will irretrievably err and leave the blood of Troy Davis on all of our hands."
(snip)
Fourteen months ago, the board halted Davis’ execution because of questions as to his guilt.
(snip)
Since then, the board has extensively studied and considered the case, board spokeswoman Scheree Lipscomb said.
(snip)
"After an exhaustive review of all available information regarding the Troy Davis case and after considering all possible reasons for granting clemency, the board has determined that clemency is not warranted," Lipscomb said.
(snip)
Beginning tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Davis will be allowed to see visitors until 3 p.m., Paul Czachowski, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said.
After that, Davis is to be given a routine physical and a last meal. Davis has not requested anything special and is to be served a regular prison meal, Czachowski said. He will then be given the opportunity to record any statement he wishes to give and, an hour before his scheduled execution, will be offered a sedative, the spokesman said.
Source ~ Atlanta Journal Constitution
Troy Davis’s lawyers are continuing to fight.
Attorney Carol Gray, who assisted the Troy Davis defense team by interviewing and taking statements from key witnesses, is urging that Davis' Tuesday 7PM death sentence be stayed to allow time to interview a critical witness to the murder who has never been spoken to by the prosecution or defense.
(snip)
According to Gray, "Davis was convicted of killing Officer Timothy MacPhail in 1989. The shooting happened in the parking lot of a Burger King across from a motel called The Thunderbird. Two of the people in that parking lot were Troy Davis and Sylvester Coles. Coles went to the police department the day after the shooting saying that Davis shot the officer. In the decade that followed, Coles confessed to several people that it was he (Coles) who shot the officer. In addition, 7 of the 9 witnesses from trial who testified against Davis have recanted their testimony."
"But no one has spoken with perhaps the best witness of all: the clerk at the motel across from the Burger King parking lot. According to another witness, the clerk screamed when the shooting happened. Her office had a large window facing the lot, so she likely saw the shooting. There is a way to find her: subpoena the tax records for that motel for the year Officer MacPhail was killed. State and federal tax records for the Thunderbird should have this woman listed as an employee, along with her social security number. She can be located.
Source ~ MarketWatch
Why the rush to execute someone who could very well be innocent?
My deeply held Christian faith often fails me when it calls on me to forgive those who commit horrific crimes. I have no love in my heart for those who murder others. I have never been able to forgive the lunatic drunk who drove his car into my beautiful cousin’s car when she was driving, not too long after her wedding, to her first new house with her wonderful new husband. My beautiful, spirited cousin died on a Tennessee highway.
My heart breaks for the family of Officer Timothy McPhail. They will be in my prayers on what must be a dark and sad night for them, as well. How many dark and sad nights they must have faced since he was taken from them so many years ago.
But the State of Georgia’s decision to go ahead with the execution of Troy Davis because of court rules -- rather than proof -- strikes me as being just plain wrong, too, especially when proof that someone else committed this terrible felony might be available, if only Troy Davis‘s lawyers were given the time to obtain it.